May 16, 2011

Jordan asked for a dog whistle to keep dogs away in his most recent letter.  The dogs must be crazy in his area! Usually missionaries keep rocks in their pockets when they are walking around to keep the dogs at bay.

All the buildings in Argentina are made of cement so it will stay cool inside during the summer. The drawback is that it stays cold in the winter as well.  It is early winter right now and Jordan's apartment feels like a big refrigerator, especially during the night. He sleeps in a sleeping bag to stay warm. He wakes up sometimes during the night and find his nose all the way numb. The first time it happened, he ran to the bathroom to see if his nose was still there.  But the thing about their bathroom is that the lights don't work.

As a  result of the bathroom light not working, he has to get ready without looking at himself.  "I always leave for the day with a ton of dried toothpaste on my face, or a chunk of hair sticking out at a right angle. I have also learned how to tie my tie without a mirror. When I wake up and shower in the morning the bathroom is so dark that I can't see anything."  He has to shower in the dark.  The other day when he got out of the shower he felt some thing under his foot.  "I thought it was a mouse, let out a little man-scream, and jumped out of the shower. It ended up being my companions soap. Our shower is pretty American, but has about one gallon of hot water. Showers are always really short."

Americans can't drink the tap water in Argentina, so they use a water purifier on all of their water. "If you drink the water it gives you fierce diarrhea. All the missionaries call getting sick from the water getting "villa rocked". (Villa is the equivalent for ghetto here.) It is one of the best missionary apartments and I am super lucky."

     Jordan and his companion named this week "Europe Week" because it was what they imagine European missions are like every week. Almost every single one of their appointments this week ditched them, so they spent a lot of time knocking doors. This rarely ever happens, but this week it happened about 25 times. They tracting about 30 hours this week. It was not very enjoyable and pretty fruitless. Getting rejected 100 times in a row is not fun.  It made Jord feel so grateful to be in the mission he is in. They only tract about 5% of the time.

"I am so happy to be a part of the work. I know that I am where I am supposed to when I am supposed to be there. One prevailing feeling that I have had thus far in Argentina is a feeling of belonging. At several points I have stopped and thought,"Of course I was sent here! Where else could I possibly go?" I know that my call was inspired."